The cause of death has not yet been determined, but the skull fractures indicate blunt force trauma.

The whale has been determined as a male blue whale measuring about 65 feet.

“This was a rare opportunity to examine an endangered blue whale, the largest animal on earth, and acquire solid base line information to share with our scientific partners,” Marine Mammal Center researcher Barbie Halaska said this evening in a statement.

The scientists conducting the necropsy are from the Marine Mammal Center, the California Academy of Sciences, the Noyo Center and University of California, Davis,

They will all be at the Westmoor Beach near Daisaku Ikeda Canyon where the carcass is.